


Going Back to Your Roots

by onward_came_the_meteors



Series: Secrets of the Rainforest [1]
Category: Wings of Fire - Tui T. Sutherland
Genre: Backstory, Canon Backstory, Field Trip, Friendship, Gen, Jade Mountain Academy (Wings of Fire), Memories from being Dragonets, Moon Reading Minds, Not Canon Compliant, One Shot, POV Third Person, Qibli Gets on Winter's Nerves But What Else is New, Ratings: G, Sad, kinkajou is a good friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:22:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21718366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onward_came_the_meteors/pseuds/onward_came_the_meteors
Summary: While on a field trip with the academy, the Jade Winglet discovers something strange in the depths of the rainforest: a tree that shows moments from their past.The problem is, not all of them want their past to be shown._________Sequel now up!
Series: Secrets of the Rainforest [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1747900
Comments: 6
Kudos: 48





	Going Back to Your Roots

It was just like any other day at Jade Mountain Academy. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and Tsunami was freaking out.

“This was your idea, Starflight. Why can’t you figure out how to organize all this? I hate organizing and—” Tsunami stopped her pacing around the teachers’ cave and faced Starflight, who, being blind, looked utterly non-intimidated by the strength of her glare. “Are you even listening to me?”

“Of course I am,” Starflight said, annoyingly calm. “I just don’t see what you’re so worried about. Yeah, it’s the school’s first field trip, but—”

“Exactly!” Tsunami cried. “We’ve got to get all the students into groups, and we’ve got to plan our route, and we need to bring food—”

“I’ve got that covered,” Clay spoke up. He and Sunny were sprawled together behind a desk, half-hidden behind stacks of scrolls.

“—and do about a hundred other things, and it’s all our responsibility!” Tsunami finished, with only an irritated jerk of the head to acknowledge Clay.

“Understandable,” Starflight said. “But I think if we split up all the things we need to do, it’ll be easier. And we’ve always got the backup plan.”

“I really hate the backup plan.”

“Well, we only have to use the backup plan if our plan plan doesn’t work, so let that motivate you.”

Tsunami thought about it for a minute, then finally conceded, clacking her talons on the floor to lie still. “All right. Let’s do this.”

_______________________

After the approximate amount of time it would have taken a MudWing to eat six or seven cows, a NightWing to make up four misleading prophecies, or a RainWing to have only a halfway satisfactory nap, the plan was set in place and all the students were summoned to the entrance hall.

Sunny climbed up on an outcropping, a little splotch of gold against the gray stone, and attempted to address said students.

Unfortunately, getting over thirty restless dragonets to stay still and listen was harder than it seemed.

“I hate you,” Pike and Flame were muttering to each other. Mightyclaws was doodling on a ripped piece of scroll. Mindreader and Garnet seemed to be trying to convince Ostrich they could form a dragon pyramid and reach the ceiling, while Anemone chimed in with interest. Icicle and Alba were loudly comparing the Ice Kingdom to this “rocky pit.” Coconut was munching on a papaya, sticky juice dripping off of his talons. Umber and Marsh were regaling Tamarin and Onyx with some story involving their brother, a snake, and a swarm of bees. Tamarin was laughing, Onyx not so much. As for the Jade Winglet, they were huddled together in a clump, talking.

“Why do you think we’re here?” Winter asked. “It just seems like an excuse for everyone to stand around and act like idiots.”

“I think Sunny’s trying to make an announcement,” Kinkajou said, looking up at their teacher, who was still attempting to be heard over the crowd.

“It’s because we’re going on a field trip,” Moon said. Everyone turned to look at her, and she sighed. “How do you guys forget that I’m a mind reader?”

“A field trip?” Winter said the words like they were decade-old bananas. Left in the sun. On a seagull-filled beach. “Why?”

“Bonding time,” Qibli teased, bumping Winter’s shoulder with his own. Winter shoved him back.

“I don’t know about that, but Sunny’s really wishing everyone here would shut up—not those exact words—so she can tell them,” Moon said.

“All right.” Qibli took a deep breath and shouted in his best Giving Orders voice that he’d learned from Thorn. “HEY!”

The room fell surprisingly silent, the last few chatters whispering away into nothing.

“Um. Yeah. Sunny’s trying to talk, everyone.”

“Thank you, Qibli,” Sunny said from up on her rock ledge. “Ahem. Students, I would like to announce that today, Jade Mountain Academy is going on its first field trip, to the rainforest!” 

Both "yay!"s and "boo!"s echoed around the cave. Sunny continued. 

"In order to make sure no one gets lost, you will each be getting a partner—which have already been chosen for you!" she added quickly as the students began to grab their friends. 

"Awwwwwwwww," the students complained.

"Tsunami, can you read the partner list?" Sunny asked, stepping back from the ledge.

"Sure," Tsunami took Sunny's place and unrolled a small scroll. She cleared her throat and began to read aloud. "Coconuts. Papayas. Cows—wait a second, Clay! Why did you switch it with the food list?" 

"Sorry!" Clay appeared from the back of the crowd and handed Tsunami a new scroll. 

"Sheesh. Okay, everyone, listen up. Icicle with Alba, Umber with Turtle, Anemone with Ostrich, Pike with Tamarin, Mindreader with Mightyclaws, Peril with Flame, Coconut with Marsh, Garnet with Onyx, Sora with…"

She continued to read off names until—

"... Moon with Kinkajou…" 

"Yes!" The two of them jumped up excitedly.

"... and Winter with Qibli." 

"Come on!" Winter complained. Qibli grinned.

"I guess we're just meant to be together, huh, Winter?" 

Winter just shook his head. Tsunami was still giving instructions up on the ledge. 

"Make sure you all stay with your partner at all times, stay within sight of a teacher, and for moon's sake don't eat strange rainforest plants. Let’s go!” Tsunami spread her wings and took off, soaring out the opening to the cave. The students did the same, and soon the sky was full of blue and black and white and green and every-colored flapping wings.

“Shall we?” Qibli asked Winter as two of them took flight. 

“What is wrong with you.”

Tsunami was in the lead, the rest of the teachers flanking the flock of students. Sunny and Fatespeaker were guiding Starflight, and Clay was carrying a large sack, most likely full of snacks for the trip.

It didn’t take them long to reach the rainforest. After only a short time, the jagged peaks of the mountain range gave way to gentle hills, then flat earth, from which taller and taller trees began to grow. Their thick branches were draped with twisting vines and bright flowers. Insects buzzed and hummed, fluttering around with their flashing wings. The rainforest echoed with the calls of birds—or RainWings.

There was a squelch as their talons hit the muddy ground.

“Yuck,” Winter said, lifting his tail out of the muck. Turtle and Umber landed heavily next to him, spraying the IceWing with more spatters of mud. He hurriedly scraped it off.

“Can’t let your lovely glittery scales be tainted by the mud,” Qibli teased.

Why must he be partners with this dragon? “I am not glittery. And I’m just not used to mud because there isn’t any—”

“—in the Ice Kingdom,” the others finished in unison. “We know.”

“Hmmph.” Winter wiped the last of the mud off of his scales. He’d never admit it, but in the light that flickered down through the leafy canopy, they were just… the slightest bit… glittery.

And then a centipede went scurrying over them.

“Why are there so many bugs?” he yelped. “And why can’t they have less legs? They don’t need that many legs.”

“It’s nature,” Kinkajou said. “You’ll get used to it. It’s awesome here!”

“I hate it.”

“You hate everything.”

“I do not hate everything.”

“Oh, you do care,” Qibli grinned.

“When I said not everything, I wasn’t including you,” Winter said.

“Guys?”

At Moon’s voice, the others immediately stopped talking and looked at her. The NightWing was staring somewhere off to the side, away from the rest of the school.

“What?” Kinkajou joined Moon and peered in the same direction. “What’re you looking at?”

Moon shakily raised a talon and pointed. “That.”

Slowly, the other three began to see.

Blue. Small pinpoints of blue, floating above the ground by a clump of trees. Almost like… sparkles.

And they were forming a trail that led deeper into the rainforest.

“Oh. Cool,” Kinkajou breathed.

“Cool?” Winter repeated. “How about what the heck is that?”

“That too.”

“We need to check this out,” Moon said softly. Her eyes were still fixed on the small sparkles, hovering like motes of dust.

“But the rest of Jade Academy is leaving,” Winter pointed out. Indeed, they were the only ones left standing in the same spot where they’d landed. They could still hear Tsunami’s voice instructing the students where to go, but it was quickly fading into the distance. “We’ll lose them.”

“Winter.”

“Fine.”

Carefully, Moon started to walk over to the blue trail. They didn’t disappear when she got close, instead glowing brighter, like tiny lamps. She could see the trail extending through the trees, in the opposite direction from where the academy had gone. 

The four dragonets began to follow the trail.

It led deeper and deeper into the rainforest, over tree roots, through bushes, even across a sluggish river. The RainWing villages didn’t even extend this far. And it got darker and darker the farther they walked, the thick leaves blocking out the sun. There were no signs that any other living things even ventured this far, which wouldn’t have been a cause for alarm if they were, say, in the Ice Kingdom, but here? In the rainforest?

It was disturbing.

“Stop!” Moon hissed after what felt like hours. Kinkajou, Qibli, and Winter froze. She pushed aside a hanging clump of leaves to show them what they’d found.

The source of the trail.

It was a tree, gnarled and cracked with age, vines twisting around the trunk like string. The blue sparkles seemed to converge around it… no, they were coming from it, pouring through every knot and gap in the bark like bees from a hive.

All except for one part of the tree, about the size of a watermelon, which was as smooth as a sheet of glass and black as a chasm.

“This,” Qibli observed. “Is not normal.”

“It’s gotta be some kind of magic,” Kinkajou agreed. “What do you think, Moon… Moon?”

Moon was walking closer to the tree, transfixed.

“Moon, come back, I don’t think you should—”

“Look,” Moon said. She pointed to the smooth, black, part of the tree. “I can see my reflection.”

“It’s… a mirror?” Qibli said doubtfully.

Moon nodded and stepped even closer—and like that, the mirror’s surface changed. She gasped.

“Moon?”

“It’s showing something,” she said, eyes wide. “An image.”

It was. As the others slowly gathered around, the surface twisted and blurred to show a scene.

A scene of the rainforest.

“Everyone else is seeing this, right?” Kinkajou mumbled.

The image zoomed in closer, showing a small patch of dark green ferns, raindrops pattering the leaves.

“Hang on… “ Moon said slowly.

The ferns rustled, and a tiny head emerged. It was a little black dragonet, hidden in the undergrowth. A little black dragonet… with very familiar teardrop scales next to her eyes.

“Moon… it’s you,” Kinkajou said in surprise. “Just, younger. A lot younger.”

“Maybe this mirror shows the past,” Winter suggested. He was still eyeing the image warily. “I’ve heard of animus spells like this before.”

The young Moon in the image was clutching onto a fern with tiny talons, eyes huge. The dark rainforest closed in around her and thunder boomed faintly. Raindrops pelted the little dragonet’s face.

“Mommy?” little Moon called out. Her voice was small and pitiful, and so very alone.

Blue-gray sadness began to spread over Kinkajou’s scales, and she leapt forward to wrap her wings around Moon. But the second she stepped in front of the mirror, it went blank, the image vanishing.

“Huh. It stopped,” Moon said. “Er, Kinkajou… you can get off now.”

“Sorry,” Kinkajou said, giving her a last squeeze. “It’s just… little you was so cute! And sad.”

Moon shrugged. “My mother just had to leave me alone sometimes. She was trying to protect me from the volcano.” She took a step back, leaving Kinkajou alone in front of the tree.

The moment Moon was more then a couple steps away from the mirror, its surface started to change again. It wasn’t the same image, though… still the rainforest, but now it showed the RainWing village, hammocks and wooden platforms lit by golden sunlight. The image zoomed in again, focusing on a familiar building… the wingery.

Where a bunch of tiny RainWing dragonets were running around, diving underneath toys and camouflaging their scales. Only one of them wasn’t camouflaged, standing in the center with her eyes closed and scales a vibrant pink and yellow.

“Three, five, eight, eleven, forty-six, ten!” the RainWing exclaimed, opening her eyes. “Ready or not, here I comes!”

It was a younger Kinkajou.

“Whoa,” the real Kinkajou said softly, watching the scene play out in the mirror. “This is… really weird. Was it this weird for you, Moon?”

Back in the image, little Kinkajou was dashing around the wingery, pouncing on all the hidden dragonets. “Find you! Find you! Find you!”

“That’s no fair,” one of the other tiny RainWings protested, crawling out from behind one of the larger toys. “You didn’t give us enough ti-ime.”

“I counted to ten, Coconut!” Little Kinkajou said, tossing her head. “That’s very fair-ish!”

Little Coconut stuck out his tongue at her. “Well, I is sick of this game now. I is hungry.”

Little Kinkajou shrugged. “Okay. Hey, Tamarin, do you want a snack?”

Another dragonet wriggled out of her hiding place. Her scales sparked blue and gold, and she walked a little hesitantly, since she couldn’t see where she was going. “Yeah!”

All the RainWing dragonets began to gravitate toward a pile of fruit that was lying in the corner and began to eat. Little Kinkajou and Tamarin shared some bananas, while Little Coconut had three whole papayas, because some things never change.

Real Kinkajou took a step back, and the image dissolved. “That is so cool!”

“And you were so cute when you were little,” Moon said, teasingly bumping her shoulder with her own. Kinkajou laughed.

“And Coconut still loved papayas!”

“The mirror seems to work only when a dragon is standing in front of it,” Qibli hypothesized. “Back away a little farther, Kinkajou, and someone else should try it.”

Kinkajou obliged and, with a sneaky look on her face, pushed Winter in front of the tree. “You try!”

“Hey!” Winter protested, but another image was already starting.

This scene could not be more different from the rainforest. It was a howling blizzard, raging winds blowing huge drifts of snow and sleet over a desolate landscape. The storm shook the very mountains, endless white just piling up over anything in the vicinity. It was the last night anyone would want to be out in.

But there was someone there. Hardly visible with those white scales against the snow, but there was a tiny IceWing struggling through the storm. He looked maybe only a year old, sinking helplessly into the deep drifts with every step.

“Hailstorm?” Little Winter called out, his voice blown away in the blizzard like a dandelion wisp. “Icicle?”

But no one was around to answer his cries. Little Winter took a wrong step and sunk almost up to his neck in a snowbank. He managed to pull himself out, but it was a difficult task. “Come on, Winter. You can do this.” HIs voice wobbled, but he shook his head—knocking quite a bit of snow off in the process—and kept going. “Remember what Father said: be strong, be vi… vigilant, strike first, trust nobody. That’s why Hailstorm and Icicle left. You can do it on your own too.”

Little Winter continued through the storm, snow dragging down his tiny wings. A violent gust of wind swept out from nowhere and threatened to blow the dragonet backwards—

“And that’s enough of that,” Real Winter growled, stepping back from the tree. The mirror instantly changed back to a smooth black, the image gone as though blown away by those same winter winds.

The other three shared a worried glance. Finally, Kinkajou spoke up. “Why were you in that blizzard all by yourself?”

“It was a rankings test.” Winter said it like it should have been obvious, but as the others looked confused, he sighed and explained it some more. “Hailstorm and Icicle and I were sent out into the blizzard, and if we survived, our ranks would be higher.”

“And they left you? You were just a tiny dragonet,” Moon said.

“Exactly. They couldn’t risk having me drag down their ranking,” Winter scoffed. “I don’t know what you other dragons do, but to IceWings that’s just common sense.”

“Us ‘other dragons’ don’t stick our dragonets out in crazy snowstorms!” Kinkajou cried.

Winter waved it away. “Why are we even talking about this? It’s Qibli’s turn.”

Qibli had been deep in concerned thought like Moon and Kinkajou, but at those words he looked like he was about to get hit by a meteor. “Oh… no. That’s fine. I don’t have to.” He backed up. “Actually, it’s getting pretty late, maybe we should start heading back? Find the academy again—hey!”

Winter had shoved him in front of the tree, where a new image was kindling in the mirror’s depths.

The sun beat down on the streets of the Scorpion Den, a desert city full to the brim with chaos. The air was full of the calls of SandWings, the shouts of merchants waving their products and promising this and that, and the smell of roasting lizards. The streets seemed too narrow to contain that many dragons, much less that many dragons shouting and running and clawing up for space, setting up makeshift stands and fighting each other for the best spots, insisting on being loud and dangerous and visible.

All except for one tiny dragonet, hiding himself in the opening of an alleyway. It was clearly a much younger Qibli, but without some key characteristics. The part of his face where his scar would be one day was smooth and unmarred, and the barb at the end of his tail, which would someday hold deadly poison, was still undeveloped. 

Little Qibli peeked out from his hiding place, scanning the area with eyes that were already too-clever for such a young dragonet. Spotting something, he darted from the alley and into the sunlight, becoming just another part of the throbbing, pulsing, streets. He ducked tails and avoided gazes before finally stopping in front of one of the stalls.

This one belonged to a SandWing selling coconuts, and who was keeping a beady eye on the crowds around him.

But he wasn’t looking at the ground. Little Qibli—who was just small enough to fit—squeezed underneath the stall, reached a little talon upwards, snatched a coconut, easily squeezed back out, and scampered away, his trophy clutched tight to his chest. He may have been young, but this was clearly not the first time he’d done that.

Little Qibli made his way back through the streets with his coconut, heading toward the very outskirts of town. There was a line of derelict buildings by the walls of the Scorpion Den, and that was apparently his target. 

Behind said buildings were a group of mean-looking adult SandWings. Undeterred, Little Qibli bounded up and addressed one of them.

“Mother? I has a coconut for you!” He offered up the stolen fruit, his expression aglow with please, please, like me now.

The bigger SandWing—Qibli’s mother—turned and looked down at her son. “Weak,” she scoffed, and without effort scooped the dragonet up and threw him against the nearby wall, hard.

THUD.

In the real world, the other three dragonets winced.

Back in the image, Qibli’s mother and the other SandWings walked away. Little Qibli was left alone on the ground, crumpled and bruised. He struggled to get up, rubbing his head, when he saw their retreating backs.

“But… “ He lay back down and curled in a ball. Tears were forming in his eyes. 

“Okay,” Real Qibli said abruptly and took a hurried step away from the mirror. The scene vanished, just like it had the other three times. “Now let’s go find the rest of the school.”

He turned to face the others and must have seen something in their faces. “Honestly, it’s not a big deal.”

“It… really is,” Moon said.

“That kind of thing happened all the time!”

“That doesn’t make it better!”

“Look, it was years ago. And it’s my past, and I have decided that it doesn’t matter.” Qibli said firmly. “What does matter is that we find the rest of Jade Mountain before we get hopelessly lost in the rainforest.”

“Should we tell anyone else about this tree?” Kinkajou pondered. “Like Sunny? Or Starflight?”

“We should. Shouldn’t we?” Moon asked.

“We don’t entirely know how it works yet,” Winter pointed out. “And we don’t know how it got here.”

“Actually, I have a theory,” Qibli said.

“Of course you do.”

“Shut up, Winter. Anyway, I think Stonemover might have enchanted the tree. He was in the rainforest before, when he enchanted the tunnels. So… maybe he did this too.”

“Maybe,” Moon said. “We can ask him once we get back to the school.”

The dragonets turned and began heading back the way they came. Moon and Kinkajou were so used to traveling in the rainforest that they almost seemed a part of it, like the trees or the flowers. This was in direct contrast to Winter, who kept getting tangled in vines or tripping over rocks. When he wasn’t complaining about the mud or the bugs, that is.

“Winter, it would be nice if you would be quiet for maybe ten whole seconds,” Qibli finally said.

WInter did not deign to respond, but the loud complaints did stop.

Eventually, they caught up with the school, which was a lot easier than they would have thought; Tsunami was yelling at the top of her lungs, and that wasn’t even the loudest noise. With all the footsteps pounding through the undergrowth, the chatter of dozens of voices, and of course, Pike and Flame arguing… the school wasn’t exactly a model of stealth.

Turtle was the first one to spot them. In fact, he fell into a bush in surprise.

“Hey! Guys!” he spluttered, coming back up. “Sunny! Tsunami! They’re back!” he added, yelling over to the teachers.

“Hi, Turtle.” Kinkajou waved.

“You guys are in so much trouble,” Turtle said, shaking his head. “I mean, none of us knew where you were—where were you, anyway—but yeah, hi, Kinkajou. That too.”

“What do you bet Tsunami gives us detention for a month?” Qibli whispered to Winter.

Winter raised his eyebrows in mock surprise. “Why, Qibli, you really have the wrong idea of our Head of School… it’ll be two months.”

As if she’d been summoned, Tsunami came storming over, radiating anger and worry.

“Where have you been?” she demanded. “I specifically said ‘no wandering off, and stay with your partners!’ Was that so hard?”

“Technically, we did stay with our partners,” Qibli said before he could stop himself.

Tsunami rewarded him with a glare. “Do you have any idea how we felt when Turtle said you were missing? You could have gotten lost, or fallen into quicksand, or—or attacked by poisonous bugs!”

While Tsunami went on and on, the other teachers gathered around the Jade Winglet. They were less visibly angry then Tsunami, more focused on their relief.

Apparently all they’d really missed was a “very informative” lecture by Starflight on different plant species. As far as field trips went, missing that part didn’t sound too bad.

“So, where were you?” Sunny finally asked.

“Explor—” Winter started, but KInkajou jumped in, bursting with excitement.

“We found this super-amazing magical tree! It’s in the forest over that way and when you stand in front of it, it shows you the past—we saw ourselves as dragonets—and it might have been enchanted by Stonemover but we’re not sure!”

Sunny blinked slowly. “Can you show me?”

The four dragonets all turned to the spot where they’d seen the trail of blue sparkles, but they had all disappeared. There wasn’t a single speck of blue in sight.

“It was just here,” Moon said, stepping forward and brushing aside some leaves. Nothing. She cast a worried look at the teachers, who were starting to look the slightest bit disbelieving, “Really. It was.”

“It must be part of the enchantment,” Winter insisted. “The path was right here.”

“Uh-huh. Right,” Tsunami said skeptically. “Sorry we can’t look for this… magic tree... all afternoon, but we need to get back to the school. Come on, everyone!” she called out.

“Yay!” all the other students cheered.

Tsunami took off, followed by dozens of pounding wingbeats.

Still on the ground, Winter, Qibli, Moon, and Kinkajou looked at each other, The tree was real. They hadn’t imagined it. And maybe they’d come back to find it again one day.

But for now at least, the tree could stay hidden in the rainforest.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
